Download Sentinel-1 from ASF

This tutorial demonstrates how to download Sentinel-1 data from the ASF Data Search Vertex.

Tip

If you want to download Sentinel data from the Sentinel official website, please refer to the Sentinel-2 Data Download Tutorial.

1. Select Sentinel-1 data

Go to the ASF Data Search Vertex: https://search.asf.alaska.edu/, and download the metadata in the .geojson format.

2. Download data

2.1. Authorization

Note

To download Sentinel data from the ASF Data Search Vertex, you need an account of NASA Earthdata. If you don’t have one, please register at the https://urs.earthdata.nasa.gov/users/new . Then follow the official tutorial for authorizing ASF access: https://disc.gsfc.nasa.gov/earthdata-login

Tip

Creating .netrc file allows you to save the account and password information for websites. When the program downloads, it will automatically read the corresponding account and password from this file, eliminating the need for repeated user input.

Replace your_username and your_password in the code below with your own username and password registered on the Sentinel official website, and execute it in a Python editor.

from data_downloader import downloader

netrc = downloader.Netrc()
netrc.add('urs.earthdata.nasa.gov', 'your_username', 'your_password')

After execution, a .netrc file will be created in the user’s directory.

Note

If the account or password is entered incorrectly, set overwrite=True in the code above to overwrite the account and password in the .netrc file.

netrc.add('urs.earthdata.nasa.gov', 'your_username', 'your_password', overwrite=True)

2.2 Bulk Download

Note

Following script will using geopandas to read the ASF metadata (*.geojson) and get the sentinel-1 urls. If you don’t have geopandas installed, you can install it via pip:

pip install geopandas

Create a Python file, copy the code below, and modify the folder_out and asf_file paths according to your situation. Then execute it to download files in bulk.

Tip

DataDownloader can automatically skip downloaded files and support resumable downloads. If the download is interrupted and some files are incomplete, simply re-execute this script.

import geopandas as gpd
from data_downloader import downloader

# Specify the folder to save the data
folder_out = "/Volumes/Data/sentinel1"
# Load the ASF metadata
asf_file = "/Volumes/Data/asf-datapool-results-2024-03-29_11-24-18.geojson"

# get the sentinel-1 urls from the ASF metadata
df_asf = gpd.read_file(asf_file)
urls = df_asf.url

# Download data
downloader.download_datas(urls, folder_out)

2.3 Retry Download

If your download is frequently interrupted, you can use the following code to automatically retry the download:

from pathlib import Path
import geopandas as gpd
from data_downloader import downloader

# Specify the folder to save the data
folder_out = Path("/Volumes/Data/sentinel1")
# Load the ASF metadata
asf_file = "/Volumes/Data/asf-datapool-results-2024-03-29_11-24-18.geojson"

# get the sentinel-1 urls from the ASF metadata
df_asf = gpd.read_file(asf_file)
urls = df_asf.url

# Download data
while True:
    try:
        downloader.download_datas(urls, folder_out)

        # check if the download is completed
        files_local = list(folder_out.glob("*.zip"))
        if len(files_local) >= len(urls):
            print("Download completed.")
            break
    except Exception as e:
        print(e)
        print("Retry download...")
        continue